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Late-night hosts, guest honor Aretha with their stories

Maeve McDermott
Published 3:26 p.m. CT Aug. 17, 2018

In this June 4, 2005 file photo, Aretha Franklin performs at the McDonald's Gospelfest 2005 in New York. The event celebrates gospel music and features a talent competition for choirs, steppers, praise dancers and soloists. Franklin died Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018 at her home in Detroit. She was 76.(Photo: Diane Bondareff, AP File)

Aretha Franklin, soul icon and occasional late-night TV guest, was remembered Thursday night by Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah following the news of her death at 76.

On "The Tonight Show," The Roots and guest Ariana Grande opened with an emotional performance of Franklin's classic "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."

"Thank you @ArianaGrande and @theRoots for putting together a beautiful opening of our show honoring our friend, the legendary Aretha Franklin," Fallon tweeted about their performance. "I know it’s a big night for Ariana - but this is what great people do when they know we need them to be there for us. #ArianaOnFallon."

Both Grande and Don Cheadle, who appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" to chat about Franklin's legacy, shared memorable anecdotes about the Queen of Soul calling them out of the blue to chat.

"She called me one time, it was one time only," Grande told Fallon during their sit-down interview. "And she goes, 'Hi, it's Aretha.' And I was like, 'Franklin?' "

She described Franklin wanting to send her the music of one of her family members, and attempting to walk her through the process.

"She was like, 'As an artist, I want to send you some music.' And I was like, "Oh, my God. I'd be honored to listen, thank you for thinking of me. Send it – just, like, text me the MP3 or something,' " Grande recalled of their conversation. "And she's like, 'Well, I don't know how to do that, so I'm gonna send it to you.' And like four months later, I got a package with, like, a CD."

On "Jimmy Kimmel," the host discussed Franklin's legacy with Cheadle, who tweeted about her death earlier in the day and, like Grande, also received his own surprise phone call.

"i was in Hawaii, I got this call on my cell phone, I didn't recognize the number, and I said hello?" he remembered. "And I hear, 'I have Miss Aretha Franklin for Don Cheadle.' (And I go), 'Whoa, yeah, put her through.' And her voice changed, 'This is Aretha, baby.' "

"It was her?" Kimmel exclaimed.

"She did the fake voice in case she got somebody else," Cheadle said.

Colbert treated the "Late Show" audience to an anecdote about how Franklin performed "Natural Woman" at the Kennedy Center Honors that he hosted in 2015 – and how he learned never to underestimate her legendary voice.

"She was playing 'Natural Woman' for (honoree) Carole King, center stage on grand piano, and I was standing stage right, just past the curtain, watching her," he recalled. "And as she started, I said to the man standing next to me, one of the stage hands, I said, 'Man, I wish I could have seen her when she was younger, when she was in full voice.' And boy am I stupid, because this is what happened."

Colbert cued up the tape of her performance, and sure enough, her vocals were perfect.

"The world is poorer for her not being here," he said. "There is no Queen of Soul right now, and she can never be replaced."

On "The Daily Show," Trevor Noah honored Franklin's political legacy.

"What I loved (about) Aretha Franklin is, it's one of those examples where you see an artist who uses their platform to go beyond just making money and doing what they do," he said. "You read these beautiful stories about how Aretha Franklin had in her contract that she wouldn't perform for segregated audiences, so if audiences were segregated by race, she was like, 'No I'm I'm not gonna perform.' "

"She was one of the first people who supported Angela Davis from the Black Panthers, she fought for Martin Luther King," he continued. "And this is at a time when it wasn't cool to do that, it was risky to you and your livelihood."